Basic data

To test three groups of hypotheses, regarding whether the addition of a specific, innovativ psychotherapy (SEKT) to psychiatric care in young bipolar patients in early stage of their disease
Primary: (1) reduces rate of relapse (development of new affective episode);
Secondary: (2) reduces missed days at work/school, days spent in hospitals, and health costs, improves medical treatment compliance and social functioning; (3) normalizes neurobiological functioning; (a) normalizes alterations in neural networks associated with emotion regulation and social cognition, i.e., reverses enhanced activation in the amygdala, attenuated activation in the medial prefrontal cortex; b) pre-treatment neural alterations in these systems will predict post-treatment outcome of SEKT, with the greatest improvement in SEKT for patients with the most pronounced neural alterations prior to treatment.